By Mulengera Reporters
Not used to being challenged, fast-talking Andrew Mwenda had a terrible Wednesday night courtesy of fearless NUP MP Nkunyingi Muwadda who put him in his place. The Kyadondo East MP also serves as the Shadow Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs and he is one of the few high-performing members of Joel Senyonyi’s cabinet.
He is in his first term but Muwadda has mastered his craft in such a short time and he indeed schooled Mwenda on why and how the diplomacy business has to be conducted. Muwadda criticized Mwenda for being an informal actor who had become larger than life and in the process made it hard for career and designated office-holding diplomats to effectively exercise their mandate.
Muwadda demanded to know the capacity in which Mwenda acts before he can effectively demand to be respected as an authority on the principles governing and guiding the conduct of diplomacy by the agents of the Ugandan government.
Muwadda was specifically intrigued with Mwenda’s insistence that, because of the colonial legacy, Western capitals’ representatives in Kampala have no moral authority to call out GoU officials who occasion acts of torture on fellow Ugandans and proceed to chest-thump about it on X.
Mwenda claimed there is a lot he knows and therefore deserved more time to talk for longer than any other panelist during the Timothy Nyangweso-moderated Behind the Scenes program that airs on UBC every Wednesday night with President Museveni being one of it’s ardent viewers. Muwadda rejected this chauvinism and within no time, Mwenda launched a shouting match of some sort while assuring everyone how he is very good at that.
He implored Muwadda to consult his mentor Semujju Nganda who had tasted his wrath at an earlier TV debate on NBS. Not one to be intimidated, Muwadda held his ground and demanded that Mwenda explains the capacity in which he requires to be respected as the unquestionable authority on Uganda’s diplomatic practice yet he doesn’t hold any official position.
Muwadda admitted a lot of the diplomatic breakthroughs are enabled by informal actors like Mwenda but dismissed it as unacceptable for Mwenda to imagine he is more important than people in the official roles. Mwenda likened himself to what Alastair Campbell was to Tony Blair when he was the UK Labor Prime Minister.
Muwadda demanded that Mwenda explains the source of funding for his clandestine diplomatic operations and who exactly supervises him or even who he reports to. Mwenda sarcastically responded that he uses personal money, something Muwadda dismissed as fake news. This angered Mwenda even more.
Burning with a rage, he left his seat and vigorously gestured towards physically standing up to Muwadda who refused to be cowed into silence as the shouting match ensued. Simon Mulongo and Nicholas Opiyo were among the other panelists who witnessed Nkunyingi Muwadda level off the man from Kanyandahi. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
